FCC broadband report ignores affordability issue

There are several serious problems with the Federal Communications Commission's 2019 Broadband Deployment Report, but here’s the one we’re most concerned about: The FCC majority has chosen, once again, to ignore the critical issues of broadband cost and affordability in its analysis of “whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.” The cost of broadband Internet service, and households’ ability to pay that cost, are important determinants of broadband access. The physical presence of fast broadband infrastructure in a community is only valuable to the extent that community residents, institutions, and businesses can afford to subscribe to it. For NDIA, this failure to acknowledge the very real link between broadband access and broadband affordability puts the 2019 Broadband Deployment Report, in Commissioner Starks’ words, fundamentally at odds with reality.